It was announced towards the end of 2018 that Google would
be shutting down their attempt at a social media network, Google Plus.
Google Plus was a place where you could share status
updates, photos, links, etc. – similarly to Facebook. Unfortunately for Google,
it did not catch on as they’d hoped. Google Plus does not refer
to your Gmail account, your Google Drive, YouTube, Google Analytics or any
other Google service. It’s just referring to the social network. Everything
else will remain the same.
Why is Google Plus
being shut down?
It all started with a security glitch that possibly exposed
up to 500,000 users’ data between 2015 and 2018. Google said the bug was
immediately fixed, and claims there’s no evidence that those who had access
exploited the glitch. Some of the potential data exposed included names, email
addresses, occupations, birthdays, gender and photos.
Furthermore, Google Plus was never really successful as its
intended purpose as a social media network. Its goal to create a rivalry
against Facebook never panned out. So once the security breach sparked an
issue, its low usage made it easy to just shut it down for good.
What does Google Plus
going away mean for my business?
If your business never had a Google Plus page, then you’re
really not losing anything except for the posts you created there.
To be clear though, Google
Plus and Google My Business are
totally separate products from Google. While Google Plus will be departing,
Google My Business will remain and is still very valuable – both for Google
listings and Google Maps.
To demonstrate this difference, here is Sales &
Marketing Technologies’ Google Plus page – which will be removed come April 1,
2019.
However, our Google My Business listing will continue to
show in the search results and in Google Maps. Here is what those look like
currently:
Knowing the distinction between these Google products is
crucial for your business’ search engine optimization and customer experience
outside of your website.
Although Google Plus might be going away, Google is as
strong as ever.
If you have any questions about Google My Business or other
SEO tactics, call us today at (407) 682-2222 to schedule a free strategy
session.